Battle Stones River

The battles of Stone' S River (called Murfreesboro by the Confédérés) was held December 31st 1862 with the January 2nd 1863 in the south-east of Nashville during the American Civil War. The general Southerner Braxton Bragg who ordered the army of the Tennessee wanted to stop the advance of the Unionistes of William Starke Rosecrans which advanced since Nashville (taken by the Northerners at the beginning of 1862, after the opening of Grant to Fort Henry and Fort Donelson). The president Southerner Jefferson Davis had intimated the order to Bragg to prevent the enemy from penetrating front in territory Southerner and more particularly in Georgia, state where one found many Arsenaux and important nodes of communications, vital for the confederated interests.

Involved forces:

Union:

Army of Cumberland: general major William Starke Rosecrans.

Right wing: general major Alexander Mac Dowell Mac Cook.

1 division: general sergeant Jefferson Colombus Davis.

1 brigade: colonel P.S. Post.
2 brigade: colonel W.P. Carlin.
3 brigade: colonel W.E. Woodruff.

2 division: general sergeant Richard W. Johnson.

1 brigade: general sergeant A. Willich (captured), then colonel W. Williams, then colonel W.H. Gibson.
2 brigade: general sergeant Edward Needles Kirk (casualty), then colonel J.B. Dodge.
3 brigade: colonel P.P. Baldwin.

3 division: general sergeant Philip Henry Sheridan.

1 brigade: general sergeant Joshua Woodrow Sill (killed), then colonel N. Greusel.
2 brigade: colonel F. Schaefer (killed), then lieutenant colonel B. Laiboldt.
3 brigade: colonel G.W. Roberts (killed), then colonel L.P. Bradley.

Center: general major George Henry Thomas.

1 division: general major Lovell Harrison Rousseau.

1 brigade: colonel B.F. Scribner.
2 brigade: colonel J. Beatty.
3 brigade: colonel J.C. Starkweather.
4 brigade: lieutenant colonel O.L. Sheperd.

2 division: general sergeant James Scott Negley.

1 brigade: general sergeant Gallant James Spears.
2 brigade: colonel T.R. Stanley.
3 brigade: colonel J.F. Miller.

3 division.

1 brigade: colonel M.B. Walker.

Left wing: general major Thomas Leonidas Crittenden.

1 division: general sergeant Thomas John Wood (casualty), then general sergeant Milo Smith Hascall.

1 brigade: general sergeant Milo Smith Hascall, then colonel G.P. Buell.
2 brigade: colonel G.D. Wagner.
3 brigade: colonel C.G. Harker.

2 division: general sergeant John Mac Auley Micrometer caliper.

1 brigade: general sergeant Charles Cruft.
2 brigade: colonel W.B. Hazen.
3 brigade: colonel W. Large.

3 division: general sergeant Horatio Philips van Cleve, colonel S. Beatty.

1 brigade: colonel S. Beatty, colonel B.C. Grider.
2 brigade: colonel J.P. Fyffe.
3 brigade: colonel S.W. Price.

Body of cavalry: general sergeant David Sloane Stanley.

Division of cavalry: colonel J. Kennett.

1 brigade of cavalry: colonel Robert Horatio George Minty.
2 brigade of cavalry: colonel Lewis Zahm.

Cavalry of reserve: general sergeant David Sloane Stanley.

Confederation:

Armed with Tennessee: general Braxton Bragg.

Body of general lieutenant Leonidas Polk.

1 division: general major Benjamin Franklin Cheatham.

1 brigade: general sergeant Daniel Smith Donelson.
2 brigade: general sergeant Alexander To carry Stewart.
3 brigade: general sergeant George Earl Maney.
4 brigade of the general sergeant Preston Smith: colonel Alfred Jefferson Vaughan Jr.

2 division: general major Jones Mitchell Withers.

1 brigade of the general sergeant Zachariah Cantey Deas: colonel J.Q. Loomis, then colonel J. Coltart.
2 brigade: general sergeant James Ronald Chalmers, colonel T.W. White.
3 brigade of the general sergeant Edward Cary Walthall: general sergeant J.P. Anderson.
4 brigade of the general sergeant J.P. Anderson: colonel Arthur Middleton Manigault.

Body of general lieutenant William Joseph Hardee.

1 division: general major John Cabell Breckinridge.

1 brigade: general sergeant Daniel Weisiger Adams, colonel R.L. Gibson.
2 brigade: colonel J.B. Micrometer caliper, general sergeant Gideon Johnson Pillow.
3 brigade: general sergeant William Preston.
4 brigade: general sergeant Roger Weightman Hanson, colonel R.P. Trabue.
Brigade of the general sergeant John King Jackson.

2 division: general major Patrick Ronayne Cleburne.

1 brigade: general sergeant Lucius Eugene Polk.
2 brigade: general sergeant Holy John Richardson Liddell.
3 brigade: general sergeant Bushrod Rust Johnson.
4 brigade: general sergeant Sterling Alexander Martin Wood.

Division of general major John To carry Mac Cown.

1 brigade: general sergeant Matthew Duncan Ector.
2 brigade: general sergeant James Edward Rains, colonel Robert Branke Vance.
3 brigade: general sergeant Evander Mac Nair, colonel R.W. To grip.

Division of independent cavalry: general sergeant Joseph Wheeler.

Brigade of cavalry of the general sergeant Joseph Wheeler.
Brigade of cavalry of the general sergeant Abraham Buford.
Brigade of cavalry of the general sergeant John Pegram.
Brigade of cavalry of the general sergeant John Austin Wharton Wharton.

Be a prelude to

The offensive of Bragg in the Kentucky having failed in October (battles of Perryville), the South was from now on on the defensive. With the difference of the theater of the East where Robert Lee abused the enemy since June and kept the capital Southerner in safety, the theater of the West had seen many defeats Southerners and a threatening northerner progression. The the Mississippi threatened to be taken and the Confédération crossed into two (only the citadels of Vicksburg and Port Hudson still held). An opening in the East of the Tennessee would be thus catastrophic and would also have as a result to make it possible the Nordistes to control an area known for its feelings anti-secessionists.

The attack of December 31st

It is thus with this pressure that Bragg undertook his offensive at the end of December 1862. It was to push back the northern army under penalty of seeing the Confederation collapsing in the more or less short term (when the Nordistes take finally foot in Georgia with the victory of Chattanooga in November 1863, the South will not be able whereas to delay the inevitable one: the fall of Atlanta, the re-election of Lincoln and the defeat). Bragg, with 45.000 men attacked the 60.000 northerners of Rosecrans in the west of Murfreesboro and completely took them with deprived. The projection Southerner was fulgurating and the completely hustled Yankees. A brigade under the orders of the Nordiste Sheridan resisted a time, allowing large troops of Rosecrans to restore their lines. At all events, the lines Nordistes had moved back several kilometers at the evening of the December 31st.

Second phase

January 1st did not see any combat and it was necessary to await the 2 and the end of the “truce of the new year” so that Bragg revival his attack. He envisaged to make pass part of his army to the east of the Stone' S River to take side the left wing of his adversary. He charged the army corps with Breckinridge of this attack. Former candidate with the presidency vis-a-vis Lincoln in 1860, Breckinridge was a politician more than one soldier and owed his stars with his relations. He will finish Secretary of State to the War in the government of Richmond. Nevertheless, it understood immediately that the attack envisaged by Bragg was dedicated to the failure and that its men would be decimated by the shooting in row of the opposing guns. Like giving him reason, its attack enlisa from the beginning and pushed back by the Northerner Artillery with heavy losses, it had to pass by again Stone' S River and to return to its starting positions.

Assessment

All in all, nothing had moved since before day before and the Nordistes had held the ground, refusing, in spite of the “dew” of the first day of the battle, to beat a retreat. Rosecrans had lost 13.000 men against 10.000 for Bragg. The battle thus finished on a Status quo but though not having been able to destroy the army of Rosecrans, Bragg had at least succeeded in stopping it and to delay the invasion of the Georgia one year. Its generals him wanted some however not to have known to exploit its successes of the first day of the battle and a disagreement settled within its commanders. A disagreement which was to make reign an execrable climate in the Armée with Tennessee and culminate with Chattanooga.

Sources

Cozzens, Peter, No Better Places to Die: The Battle off Stones To rivet , University off Illinois Near, 1990, ISBN 0-252-01652-1.
Eicher, David J., The Longest Night: In Military History off the Civil War , Simon & Schuster, 2001, ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
Esposito, Vincent J., West Point Atlas off American Wars , Frederick A. Praeger, 1959. (Source for map dated.)
Foote, Shelby, The Civil War, has Narrative: Fredericksburg to Meridian , Random House, 1958, ISBN 0-394-49517-9.
Hattaway, Hermann, and Jones, Archer, How the North Won: In Military History off the Civil War , University off Illinois Near, 1983, ISBN 0-252-00918-5.
McWhiney, Grady, Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat , Columbia University Near, 1969, ISBN 0-231-02881-4.
McPherson, James Mr., Battle Cry off Freedom: Civil The War Era (Oxford History off the United States) , Oxford University Near, 1988, ISBN 0-19-503863-0.
Rosecrans, William S. '' Official Carryforward from the Battle off Stones To rivet '', February 12,1863.

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